Spiritualism in America

elective courses

The course aims to examine American Spiritualism (the belief in the possibility of communication with spirits of the dead) in the 19th and 20th centuries in its cultural, historical, and literary context. Starting with the phenomenon of the Fox Sisters and celestial telegraphy, Spiritualism as a quasi-religious, philosophical, and political project, spread across the country torn by the Civil War, offering consolation by claiming that communication and co-habitation with the spirits of the dead is possible. The course looks at the development of the movement, including contemporary America, in various cultural contexts and sees how it influenced religion, social and political movements, as well as science and technology. And vice versa, how it was influenced by them in turn. Because of the complexity of the topic, students will immerse themselves in transdisciplinary readings and methods of research and thus will be able to see how various texts of culture resonate with one another.

The course aims to examine the complexity of American Spiritualism (the belief in the possibility of communication with spirits of the dead) in the 19th and 20th centuries in its cultural, historical, and literary context. Starting with the phenomenon of the Fox Sisters and the idea of celestial telegraphy, Spiritualism as a quasi-religious, philosophical, and political project, spread across the country torn by the Civil War, offering consolation through the conviction that communication and co-habitation with the spirits of the dead is possible. The course wants to look at its history in the USA and answer the following questions: How did spiritualism develop conceptually, who were its leaders and what were its major tenets? What was the role of women and people of color in the movement and how did they use this role to gain political voice? How did utopian ideas about the afterlife influence political and social projects in the land of the living? In what way can we look upon Spiritualism as a form of religious and spiritual eclecticism that appropriated and transformed not only elements form indigenous spiritualities, but actively used scientific discoveries and technological developments (i.e., photography, telegraphy) to support its claims? What role did literature play in spreading Spiritualist ideas? How were its claims explored through new cultural practices, like the séance, and how were those claims studied with the use of scientific methods, for example, by the members of the American Society of Psychical Research? What kind of conclusions were reached and how did they influence key American philosophers of the day like William James? Because of the complexity of this cultural phenomenon, students will have the occasion to immerse themselves in transdisciplinary readings and methods of research and thus will be able to see how various texts of culture resonate with one another and what/ how can we learn from their juxtaposition.

Alger, William Rounseville. A Critical History of the Doctrine of a Future Life. New York: W. J. Widdleton, 1867.

Barrett, William F. “The Prospects of Psychical Research in America.” Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 1 (November 1884): 172–79.

Bullard, William N. “[First] Report of the Committee on Mediumistic Phenomena.”

Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research 1 (December 1887): 230–36.

Capron, E. W. Modern Spiritualism: Its Facts and Fanaticisms, Its Consistencies and Contradictions. Boston: Bela Marsh, 1855.

Cattell, James McKeen. “Mrs. Piper, the Medium.” Science, n.s. 7, no. 172 (April 15, 1898): 534–35.

Crookes, William. Psychic Force and Modern Spiritualism. London: Longmans, Green, 1871.

Crookes, William. Researches into the Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism. Rochester, N.Y.: Austin, 1905.

Gurney, Edmund, Frederic Myers, and Frank Podmore. Phantasms of the Living. 2 vols. London: Trübner, 1886.

Houdini. A Magician Among the Spirits. Harper and Brothers, New York and London, 1924

Hyslop, J. H. “President G. Stanley Hall’s and Dr. Amy Tanner’s Studies in Spiritism.” Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 5 (1911): 1-98.

James, Alice. The Diary of Alice James. Edited by Leon Edel. 1934. Reprint, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1964.

James, Henry, Sr. “Spiritual Rappings.” In Lectures and Miscellanies, 407–24. New York: Redfield, 1852.

James, William. Essays in Psychical Research. The Works of William James. Edited by Frederick H. Burkhardt, Fredson Bowers, and Ignas K. Skrupskelis. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1986.

James, William. The Writings of William James: A Comprehensive Edition. Edited by John J. McDermott. 1967. Reprint, New York: Modern Library, 1977.

Jastrow, Joseph. “The Psychology of Deception.” Popular Science Monthly, December 1888, 145–57.

Jastrow, Joseph. “The Psychology of Spiritualism.” Popular Science Monthly, April 1889, 721–32.

Jastrow, Joseph. “The Problems with ‘Psychic Research.’” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, June 1889, 76–82.

Lewis, E. E. “A Report of the Mysterious Noises Heard in the House of Mr. John D. Fox, in Hydesville, Arcadia, Wayne County, Authenticated by the Certificates, Confirmed by the Statements of the Citizens of That Place and Vicinity.” Canandaigua, N.Y.: E. E. Lewis, 1848.

Lombroso, César. After Death,What? Spiritistic Phenomena and Their Interpretation. Translated by William Sloane. Boston: Small, Maynard, 1909.

Peirce, Charles S. “Logic and Spiritualism” (1905). In Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, 6 vols., edited by Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss, 6:375–89. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1934.

Podmore, Frank. Modern Spiritualism. 2 vols. London: Methuen, 1902.

Robbins, Anne Manning. Both Sides of the Veil: A Personal Experience. Boston: Sherman, French, 1909.

Tanner, Amy. Studies in Spiritism. New York: D. Appleton, 1910. Reprint, New York:

Prometheus Books, 1994.

Wood, R. W. “Report of an Investigation of the Phenomena Connected with Eusapia Palladino.” Science 31, no. 803 (May 10, 1910): 776–80.

Secondary Sources

Asprem, Egil. The Problem of Disenchantment: Scientific Naturalism and Esoteric Discourse, 1900–1939. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 2014.

Brewster, Scott and Luke Thurston, The Routledge Handbook of the Ghost Story. Routledge, 2018.

Bloom, Murray Teigh. “America’s Most Famous Medium.” American Mercury, May 1950, 578–86.

Blum, Deborah. Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life after Death. New York: Penguin, 2006.

Brandon, Ruth. The Spiritualists: The Passion for the Occult in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. New York: Alfred E. Knopf, 1983.

Braude, Ann. Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth-Century America. Boston: Beacon Press, 1989.

Carroll, Bret E. Spiritualism in Antebellum America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.

Coon, Deborah J. “Standardizing the Subject: Experimental Psychologists, Introspection, and the Quest for a Technoscientific Ideal.” Technology and Culture 34, no. 4 (October 1992); 757–83.

Coon, Deborah J. “Testing the Limits of Sense and Science: American Experimental Psychologists Combat Spiritualism, 1880–1920.” American Psychologist 47 (February 1992): 143–51.

Crabtree, Adam. From Mesmer to Freud: Magnetic Sleep and the Roots of Psychological Healing. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.

Deveney, John Patrick. Paschal Beverly Randolph: A Nineteenth-Century Black American Spiritualism Rosicrucian, and Sex Magician. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.

Ellenberger, Henri. The Discovery of the Unconscious: The History and Evolution of Dynamic Psychiatry. New York: Basic Books, 1970.

Goldsmith, Barbara. Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998.

Knapp, Krister Dylan. William James. Psychical Research and the Challenge of Modernity. The University of North Carolina Press, 2021

Kontou, Tatiana and Sarah Willburn. The Ashgate Research Companion to Nineteenth-Century Spiritualism and the Occult. Ashgate, 2012

Lutz, Tom. American Nervousness, 1903: An Anecdotal History. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.

Oppenheim, Janet. The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850–1914. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Poovey, Mary. A History of the Modern Fact: Problems of Knowledge in the Sciences of Wealth and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Taves, Ann. Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.

KNOWLEDGE

- has knowledge of the phenomenon of American Spiritualism in a historical and cultural context

- understands how American Spiritualism influenced the literature and philosophical thought of the 19th and early 20th centuries

- understands the influence of spiritualist thought on political and social movements

SKILLS

- can apply basic methods of analysis of various cultural texts

- is able to apply the formulation of conclusions on the basis of reading source texts

- is able to formulate research questions on complex cultural phenomena using spiritualism as an example

COMPETENCES

- is able to cooperate with the group, and take an active part in the discussion

- is open to a variety of interpretations of texts as well as visions of US culture and society

- understands the impact of power relations and belief/belief systems on the shape of social life

- understands the impact of the ethical dimension on social life

- is able to formulate his/her own views orally and in writing in a coherent and articulate manner, while maintaining respect for dissenting views.

2 short 1-page essays in response to an issue provided by the lecturer (20% of the final grade)

class participation (40% of the final grade)

final essay (5-7 pages) (40% of the final grade)

Assessment methods and assessment criteria

10 points – 5!

9 points – 5

8 points – 4,5

7 points – 4

6 points – 3.5

5 points - 3